Spoken Words

When we have accepted Christ as our Savior, our lives and the purpose of every action in our life changes…well, it should change at least.

In all of my trips to Guatemala, my friend, Debora, has always been the lead translator and I have played more of a supportive role. So when I found out she would not be with us on this trip and I would be the lead translator, I wasn’t too scared until I remembered the responsibilities included translating sermons, not only from Spanish to English but English to Spanish.

Now, many people who haven’t done this before don’t fully understand what a huge job this is. First, you have to listen to the pastor’s words, process them and translate them to the other language…all in a matter of seconds. Normal conversation is hard enough but when it is a sermon; the word of God spoken out loud, there is so much more at risk.

My first experience translating a sermon from Spanish to English was last night. In my opinion, it went horribly wrong. I wasn’t keeping up with the pastor. He quoted Scriptures I knew but was not able to quote them by memory like he did and it was difficult to hear him at times. When it was done, I went back to my seat, looked at another one of the translators and said “that was horrible”. I was defeated!

The feeling of defeat lasted through the night and into this morning. I was so disappointed with myself. I knew I had to move on from this so I began listening to praise music, snuck away from the group for a few minutes and just prayed. When I got back to the group, the Lord gave me 3 newborn babies to love on. He knows how easily they melt my heart. I was feeling much better.

As the day went out, several members of the group said I did a great job translating. I said thank you with the “yeah right” undertone. On the ride back to the hotel, the pastor asked if I would be translating for him. I mentioned I had asked another one of the translators to cover me since I had such a difficult time translating from Spanish to English, I couldn’t imagine translating from English to Spanish. The pastor mentioned that no matter what happens or what is said, God’s word will be spoken. A light bulb went off.

As much as I had prayed for it not to be about me, I had made it about me. I believed that His message was somehow altered by what I thought to be a failure when He already knew what would happen and spoke through me, despite me.

Well, it’s. Saturday night and I have 3 more sermons to translate. One from Spanish to English and the last 2 from English to Spanish. I have  not yet decided whether or not I will do the last 2 sermons; the knots in my stomach have gotten worse just at the thought of it, but I will continue praying and will do as the Lord leads. When I am weak, He is strong, right?